SEE ALSO:
press releases
WTO news
Mike Moore's speeches
Renato Ruggiero's speeches,
1995-99
|
The WTO's
General Council concluded that the Working Party on Estonia's accession had completed its
work on the package of accession documents (Working Party Report, Protocol of Accession,
and Market Access Schedules of Concessions on Goods and Services) allowing Estonia to sign
the accession protocol. Estonia will become the WTO's 135th Member 30 days after it
notifies the WTO Secretariat that it has completed its national ratification proceedings. The
working party on Estonia's accession to the WTO was established in March 1994 and was
transformed into a WTO working party in 1995. The Working Party met for the first time in
November 1994. In April 1999 it adopted by consensus the draft report, protocol of
accession and the schedules of concessions on goods and services. Estonia has agreed to
bring its economic and trade regime into conformity with WTO rules and obligations in all
areas. It will sign on to all multilateral and plurilateral agreements, i.e. the
government procurement agreement and the agreement on trade in civil aircraft, without any
transition periods.
The
following 30 governments have requested to join the WTO and their applications are
currently being considered by accession working parties: Albania, Algeria, Andorra,
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Cambodia, People's Republic of China, Croatia, Georgia,
Jordan, Kazakhstan, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Lithuania, Former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Nepal, Oman, Sultanate of, Russian Federation, Samoa,
Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Sudan, Chinese Taipei, Tonga, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu and
Vietnam. |
|
